The State and Territory Child Care Capacity Building Center (STCBC)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Care is seeking small business organizations to establish The State and Territory Child Care Capacity Building Center (STCBC), which will provide technical assistance and coordination services for child care and development programs across all 50 states and territories. The primary services required include CCDF subject matter expertise and content technical assistance covering child care business practices, emergency preparedness and disaster response, consumer education, health and safety standards, and workforce support; coordination and data management through state and territory systems specialists and evaluation work; and website and information technology systems support for multiple platforms including ChildCare.gov, the OCC website, and the Technical Assistance Tracker system. Interested small businesses must submit capability statements not exceeding 15 single-sided pages by May 6, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET, including staffing expertise, current in-house capacity, up to three relevant past projects, and a completed assessment table addressing experience with ACF programs, state-level block grants, federal website operations, Section 508 compliance, ServiceNow systems in AWS environments, cross-organizational collaboration, and program operations management. Evaluation will focus on the contractor's demonstrated capability to perform these requirements as outlined in the draft Statement of Work, with particular emphasis on the technical expertise and systems management capacity demonstrated in the capability statement response.

This pre-solicitation notice carries no set-aside designation and is issued for market research purposes to inform acquisition strategy decisions, meaning responses will not result in an award but serve as information gathering only. The anticipated contract period spans 12 months base period beginning September 30, 2026 through September 29, 2027, followed by four optional one-year periods and a potential six-month extension, with total performance potentially extending through March 29, 2032. The contractor must employ five state and territory systems specialists (one per OCC regional office) and maintain multiple technology platforms including ServiceNow and AWS hosting with 99% uptime objectives, requiring significant IT infrastructure investment and expertise. While specific budget ranges are not disclosed in this sources sought notice, the contract is structured as Time and Materials with anticipated Other Direct Costs including ServiceNow platform licenses for 125 users in FedRAMP GovCloud, AWS hosting for development and production environments, and specialized software licenses. The place of performance is any physical location within the United States, with virtual offices not permitted, and all responses should be directed to jan.welsh@hhs.gov with the subject line referencing the STCBC opportunity.